Sherif Al-Kilani, Deputy Minister of Finance for Tax and Customs Policies, answered the journalist Lamees Al-Hadidi’s question: What is the purpose of the decision of the Customs Authority and the National Telecommunications Regulatory Authority to end the exceptional exemption period for devices? Mobile phone Arriving from abroad accompanied by a passenger, if this exception, when it was approved, was aimed at reducing smuggling, and there was only one excluded phone? Is the goal to target customs proceeds? Saying: “The goal cannot be to target the outcome, on the contrary. When there is a product that is not available in the local market, the import of phones cannot be prevented and an exception must be granted by way of exemption, but now the situation has changed, and this was an exception and not a law.”
Al-Kilani continued, during a telephone interview with the “Al-Sawra” program presented by the media personality Lamis Al-Hadidi: “After a year, we visited the companies that were brought to the local market, and we saw their production of 20 million locally produced devices, at a much better price than the price abroad, and thus the reason for the exemption was removed, and whoever wants to bring a gift can buy it locally.”
He added: “However, whoever wants to bring a device from abroad can do so. We do not mind, but we removed the feature that was exceptionally present, because its purpose has been removed.”
He revealed that the volume of exemptions granted on personal mobile phones is estimated at billions, saying: “When measuring the customs price or customs tax of 38% compared to the number of exempted phones, it is estimated at billions.”
